Expect more, and you'll get more. Make your consultant a partner. Make sure they own your success or failure as much as you do. You want them thinking ahead of the current assignment. You want them dreaming of new ideas. You want them looking for strengths to leverage and weaknesses to shore up. If your consultant is only a one-trick vendor, they can't do that.

Every consultant in our business can tell horror stories of clients that carefully and deliberately drove their fundraising train right off a cliff because they weren't interested in what the consultant had to say.

If you have consultants that don't want to or aren't able to own your success, get rid of them!

30 May 2012

I got this the other day in the mail from a local organization that I'm not a donor to. (I've hidden the identity, because it's a local hard-working organization that really doesn't deserve public ridicule.)

"Cancer is a word, not a sentence." Pretty clever. It might be a comfort to someone facing cancer, though I can't help but think if I had cancer, I'd be saying I really don't care about cancer in general; tell me about my cancer.

This is a case of sloganeering in lieu of fundraising. It's a common error, caused by fundraisers mistakenly taking their cue from commercial brand advertising.

No matter how clever the slogan, it's unlikely to work in fundraising. That's because a slogan doesn't involve donors in any way. It isn't a call to action. (Theoretically, it could be, but it never is.)

A really good slogan might be resonant or memorable. It might make donors nod knowingly, or chuckle, or think I'll have to show that to Phyllis. But it's not a call to action, and that means not many people will take action. The best you can hope for is you have such a strong brand that people already have in mind to donate to you -- so the fact that you fail to actually ask doesn't matter; you'll get responses nonetheless. Of course, a blank piece of paper would do just as well.

But a real fundraising piece that includes a call to action will do a lot better.

Next time someone shows you a clever slogan in lieu of a call to action, send 'em back to the drawing board. Fundraising is about action, not slogans.

It's aimed at yourself, not your audience. (You might say this is covered by #4 above.) Too many nonprofit online videos are look-at-us, aren't-we-great brag pieces. They should instead strive to connect the viewer with the action.

It doesn't go anywhere. No call to action. No "so what." Even if you're not trying to raise funds, you should have some kind of next step in mind. "We want viewers to be more aware" is not an action.

25 May 2012

After the viral explosion of Kony 2012, the "Cover the Night" event that followed was a little disappointing, and widely labeled as a "fizzle." (See coverage of that here and here.)

I'm guessing the "fizzled" Kony events amounted to more activity than most nonprofits will ever manage to field. But it's true they seem a disappointment in comparison to the video that preceded them.

There have been lot of hypotheses floated for the fizzle, except for the one I think is the true cause: the brains of young people.

Fizzling is a hazard of anything you do that's aimed at people under 30. Actually, it's more than a hazard. It's a virtual certainty.

Young people are driven by fads. They love to do things that "everyone" is doing. The very fact that something is big is a recommendation. So when something catches on and reaches a tipping point, it begins to generate its own energy. It can grow at unbelievable speed to incredible size. The Lance Armstrong FoundationLivestrong wristband is another example.

These fads can come like a tsunami -- and disappear just as quickly. That's the nature of fads, and the nature of motivation among young people. They can embrace an idea, a fashion, or a cause quickly and with passion -- and move on to something else just as quickly.

This isn't a moral shortcoming, and it's not a lack of character or intelligence. It's just how the young brain interacts with the world: Always seeking the new, and heavily influenced by what others are doing.

Older brains are different: Less eager to embrace new things. More connected to the things they know. Harder to get in the door, but easier to keep once they're in.

A lot of nonprofits get bamboozled by this fundamental difference. Because most donors are older people, we can count on a certain level of loyalty and stick-to-itiveness. Then we see a tsunami like Kony 2012 and image getting numbers like that with old-people loyalty following.

It doesn't happen. It can't.

That's not to say that the Kony 2012 boom and fizzle was a mistake. I'm sure the whole thing has been positive for that organization.

But nobody should look at youth-driven fads like that and imagine that somehow creating one of your own would lead to gazillions of donors who stick with you like the donors you have now.

(It's also worth noting that creating a fad requires no small helping of luck, in addition to doing everything right.)

That's a phrase all fundraisers should have tattooed on their forearm. The fact that you've grown bored with your fundraising has no bearing on whether it's time for a change. Actually, there's a slight correlation: If you're bored with it, you're probably on the right track:

Getting creative is NOT a high value goal in direct mail.... The goal of direct mail is to find a "formula" that works and then do it until it stops working. You'll know you've succeeded if your appeals make money and you're bored with them.

Here are some places where you should really put your creativity muscle to work in fundraising:

Finding new fundraising offers. Calls to action that are more specific, more concrete, and more exciting for donors.

Discovering ways to encourage cross-channel behavior. Every day, more donors are moving back and forth between the real world and the net. Donors who do this are typically your best donors. You need to give them easy and attractive ways that still allow you to capture the information. Figure that out, and you'll be miles ahead.

Finding images that work. Most images used in fundraising don't help at all. A lot of them actively discourage giving -- and we often have no clue that's happening. Images can and should be among the most powerful part of your messaging. But it takes research and testing to find the images that do the trick.

These might strike you as boring places to focus your creativity. They aren't. Increasing revenue and donor retention aren't boring at all.

21 May 2012

If you mean they are special because they are generous people, then yes.... But don't fall into thinking that your donors respond differently.

All donors are special. In general, they're more educated than average. More engaged in their communities in ways beyond giving. More likely to commit good deeds. And, most important, they give. They do more than their fair share.

But don't make the significant and common mistake of assuming they think and respond differently from all other donors. Without even looking, I can pretty much guarantee you that they don't.

Not all donor files are the same. But the differences among them are small. If you're smart, you'll start from the premise that what usually works in fundraising everywhere will work for your. Then you'll test and discover the areas of difference.

What most fundraisers mean when they say Our donors are different is really I don't like fundraising the way most people do it. That's a quick way to waste lot of time and money.

18 May 2012

Want to know why advertising is dead, but living on like a money-eating zombie? Watch The Pitch, a reality show where real ad agencies face off for real work from real clients.

Among many silly things said by the agency people on the pilot episode were these:

"We pride ourselves on creativity, not playing it safe, doing things that no one has ever seen before."

"We ask clients to take risks, because we've taken risks."

If I were the client, I'd immediately remove the agencies where people say things like that from all consideration. Because to those guys, the work is about themselves, not about accomplishing their clients' goals. They are going to produce dumb, crappy, clever ads that don't motivate people to buy the clients' products.

Unfortunately, the clients can't quite see through the fog and are willing to pay agencies to bare their empty souls to a world that doesn't give a rip.

These whiny agency hacks think they are artists, creative free-spirits with a vision and a passion that just needs to be discovered. And they think their clients are the media for their art that should be willing to pay for the privilege.

The difference between them and real artists is this: Real artists are willing to live in poverty and obscurity while they seek their vision. Some of them actually do produce things no one has ever seen before -- unlike the agency folks who think their latest wordplay or clever sex joke is some kind of avant-garde statement.

The good news is, a lot of companies are starting to figure it out. They're not interested in paying for the fantasy life of agency people. So times are getting harder and harder for the parasites.

What does this have to do with nonprofits?

Not much. But every once in a while, one of us gets pulled into the upside-down world of the agency artistes, and they produce faddish, opaque brands that don't move donors and stupid nonprofit ads.

Not all agencies are like that. Some do brilliant work and really focus on their clients, not their own tortured souls. But if you find yourself talking to an ad agency, make sure you don't end up working with frustrated artists who see you as a kind of "paint" for their own artistic self-expression.

What this blog is about
The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It's not about any technology, medium, or technique. It's about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It's already here. More.

About the bloggerJeff Brooks, creative director at TrueSense Marketing, has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 20 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff.brooks [at] truesense [dot] com. More.

Instead of talking at donors, TrueSense is proving it's smarter to listen. Asking donors how they prefer to give. Because we’re about creating relationships and building trust and communicating honestly and powerfully. One to one. Want to talk fundraising? Drop me a line.

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